1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to controlling channel selection on a television and particularly to apparatus and methods for selecting channels by theme.
2. Description of the Related Art
In presently used television systems, many channels are available that broadcast a wide range of topics including news, sports, movies, programming for kids, and music. Due to the large number of channels available via cable and satellite receivers, a viewer is often overwhelmed when selecting a channel for viewing. Even when the viewer knows the exact program and broadcast channel (for example, Prime Ticket on channel 39) the viewer may still have trouble locating the program because cable channel numbers are often different depending on the cable channel company that is transmitting the channels. Guides are published which describe the local programming; however, the guides are increasing complicated to read and not always up to date. When a user turns on a television system, the user often knows the program theme that he or she wishes to watch. For example, the user may wish to watch news. If the user does not know the channel number of a particular news station, then the user will often use a remote controller to scan through the channels until a channel with news is found. The user does this by pressing the channel up or down command on the remote controller. This method of scanning the channels available on a television system is often called channel surfing. The user surfs the channels until a program is found that matches the theme the user wishes to watch.
A number of attempts have been made to make the selection of channels corresponding to a particular theme easier to accomplish.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,931 (Na) discloses a channel selecting method for programs of the same category. Arbitrary channels are assigned according to the same types of programs as those contained in signals broadcast from a broadcasting station using a VPS function. The method determines whether a received broadcast signal uses the video program system (VPS broadcasting) and recognizes codes corresponding to the programs and arbitrarily assigns channels for the programs according to the codes. Then, if a desired channel is selected, the same types of programs corresponding to that channel can be automatically recognized, so that the broadcasting channel selection for viewing the same type of programs can be easily performed.
For example, the character "A" may be assigned to amusement programs, the character "B" to sports programs and the character C to serial dramas and encoded onto the video signal output. The VPS data is sent during the vertical blanking interval of the video signal.
A disadvantage of Na is that a user must first select a desired channel before other channels having the same types of programs can be automatically recognized. Also Na requires that the VPS broadcasting signal be used and requires the availability of a television system that can recognize the VPS data embedded in the vertical blanking interval of the video signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,611 (Yee) discloses an apparatus and technique for automatically tuning an audio video device in accordance with a topic selection made by user. Knowledge of specific broadcast of programs and times is not necessary. A user makes a selection of a subject matter from a menu or list and necessary tuning is thereafter automatically done under control of a menu or list control interface. Digital information is transmitted in the vertical blanking interval to provide a menu. The menu control interaction automatically adjusts the tuner in accordance with the menu selection made by the user to choose an arbitrary channel and page of information within that channel. Digital data is transmitted with the broadcast signal to characterize the subject matter content of the broadcast signal. The tuner will seek to any arbitrary frequency having a digital code matching the subject matter chosen by the user.
Yee has the disadvantage that a television system must have a means of decoding the digital information in the vertical blanking interval. Another disadvantage of Yee is that although a menu is used to select a particular channel or a category of programs, the accessed channel may not have the program that the user wishes to view. Thus, the user must reaccess the menu and select the proper subject matter again and go to another channel within the subject matter and repeat this process until a channel is found that the user wishes to view.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,209 (Schwob) discloses a broadcast receiver capable of selecting a broadcast station based upon a user selected program format and the geographical location of the receiver. After a user inputs the geographical location of the receiver in the desired program format the data base may be scanned to select a broadcast frequency corresponding to the input geographical location and program format for retrieval. The apparatus has a number of format selection keys which may be as follows: classical, CNW for country and western, rock, jazz, and talk for news, sports and public affairs.
The disadvantage of Schwob is that similar to Yee, the data base is accessed to select a particular broadcast frequency which is then tuned to. If the user does not wish to listen to that broadcast frequency then the user must reaccess the data base for selection of another broadcast frequency having the same desired format.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,651 (Templin) is a system for controlling a receiver to tune to only a selective set of channels. Separate groups of VHF, UHF or CATV channels are programmed by means of a key switch having various positions of engagement corresponding to individual groups of channels. Following key switch selection of a given group of channels, any number of channels within that group may be programmed for viewing by means of channel up and down selector keys. A RAM is used to store saved and skipped channels for each key switch position.
Templin allows a user to set a selected set of channels as the preferred channels. Once these preferred channels have been selected then the tuner will only tune to those channels. This saves some time in searching channels for a particular program; however, Templin does not allow the user to select a program category or theme. Thus, the user is required to search through all the selected channels to find channels having a particular theme.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,034 (Na) provides an automatic picture-in-picture (PIP) channel search apparatus and method for, when operating the scan key while the user is watching TV or a video tape on a video cassette recorder using the TV having a PIP function, searching channels by taking the currently viewed picture as a main screen and taking the searched broadcasting channels as subscreens, to thereby facilitate channel selection. The automatic PIP channel search apparatus and method involves the steps of setting the currently viewed broadcast signals in a main screen if a scan key is input when watching a TV channel, setting broadcast channels excluding the channel set as the main screen, as subscreens to display in turn the subscreen channels, and displaying only a specific channel broadcast on the main screen, if the scan key signal is input again.
Na has the disadvantage that each of the TV channels excluding the channel being displayed as the main screen are displayed as a PIP in turn. This does allow the user to surf through the channels; however the user must scan through all of the TV channels to find a channel having a desired theme. This is very similar to surfing through all the channels by pressing the channel up or down buttons on a remote controller for reviewing all the channels to find a channel with a particular theme. Due to the large number of channels available on current cable and satellite systems, the user is greatly inconvenienced by having to search through all of the channels.
Japanese patent application 02-152453 (Yoshihisa) filed Jun. 11, 1990 and published on Feb. 14, 1992 with publication No. 04-044475, discloses a channel selection control section that controls an on-screen display as required to display on the screen of a television a category menu. A user can select a category from the category menu and then the tuner is controlled to select channels corresponding to all broadcast stations belonging to the selected category. Each channel corresponding to the selected category is displayed sequentially on the screen together with an indication of the broadcast station name. Each channel is displayed for a prescribed time. A desired channel is selected by depressing an enter key when the picture of the desired broadcast station is displayed on the television.
Yoshihisa has the disadvantage that an on-screen display is required to display the category menu. Also required is a method for the user to select a category from the on-screen display such as a cursor on the screen. The on-screen display requires additional hardware in a television or other associated apparatus and if a cursor is used to select a particular channel, then this also requires additional hardware in the television.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for apparatus and methods for selecting channels by theme, which overcome the foregoing shortcomings.